Editorial: Burma shows the importance of farming science

NEWS from Burma keeps getting worse: dire poverty, murderous repression and now cyclone Nargis has killed some 100,000 people. Disease and starvation could push the toll over the million mark as the country's despots, unbelievably, impede emergency aid while exporting rice - literally making a killing on inflated international prices. Surely Burma's main trading partners, China, India and Thailand, have no more excuses for not imposing sanctions tough enough to put pressure on Burma's government.

Burma is suffering even more than it might because it neglected its farms. Nargis wiped out its main rice-growing area because it had few defences, and the farmers had no warning. In addition, the UN is now anxious for farmers to get back to their fields quickly so that they do not miss the next planting season in June. Of course Burmese people need food, but the UN is worried because high rice prices make ...

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